Inside:
- Possible new life for ethics reform proposals
- Western Illinois saw unemployment decline before Tyson closure was announced
- Busy times in the 71st District!
- More news
Possible new life for ethics reform proposals
Every year House Republicans file ethics reform bills, and every year the majority Democrats block them from even being considered. Meanwhile, the state lurches from one corruption scandal to another, and nothing gets done to strengthen the state’s ethics laws. Even the conviction and sentencing of the former Speaker of the House did not bring about any reform.
A few days ago, Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey, a former federal judge, announced his resignation effective at the end of this month. Judge McCuskey was first appointed to the office four years ago. The Legislative Inspector General serves as the chief ethics officer of the General Assembly and investigates charges of wrongdoing by members of the state’s legislative branch. The Legislative Ethics Commission named David Risley, a former federal prosecutor, as the interim inspector general until a permanent replacement can be chosen.
This vacancy brings attention back to the need for ethics reform in Springfield. Government corruption is not a partisan issue – there have been plenty of members of both parties over the years who have gotten into trouble. But the issue of reform has, unfortunately, become partisan, as Democrats continue to block needed reforms year after year.
During this General Assembly, House Republicans have proposed bills to give the Legislative Inspector General the resources needed to effectively do the job, such as stronger subpoena power. Bills have also been filed to prohibit legislators from tapping their campaign funds to pay for legal defenses and to prevent corrupt public officials from collecting pension benefits.
These bills have been continually blocked, but now we are once again presented with the opportunity to see them acted upon, as the state gets yet another reminder of the need to clean up corruption at the Capitol. These bills should be brought up for consideration during the veto session this fall.
Western Illinois saw unemployment decline before Tyson closure was announced
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) reported recently on unemployment figures from the state’s different metro areas, and they found that the Quad Cities region of western Illinois had the largest decline in unemployment of any area in the state.
Illinois’ portion of the Quad Cities area saw unemployment decline in July (as compared with July 2025) by 1.5 percentage points, to a level of 3.7%. This was the largest unemployment decrease in the state.
However: it does not include the time period of the Tyson facility closure in Joslin, which occurred in August.
The unemployment number for the area around Decatur improved by 1.2%, but still stands at 4.9% overall unemployment. Numbers in the Rockford area also improved by 1.2%, but the unemployment rate in that area is 4.3%.
We will see what effect the Tyson closure has on numbers in this area.
Busy times in the 71st District!
These are busy times around the 71st District as fall festival season kicks into high gear.
An incredible day started out by attending and speaking at the annual WRAM/WMOI fall breakfast at the Monmouth American Legion. Thank you to G&M and West Central FS for your support. Afterwards I participated in the Fall ag roundtable on WRAM/WMOI radio station at the Patton Block, which is always an educational two-hour discussion.
I had a great update from Birth to Five leaders Jim Walters, Alli Chasteen and Stephanie Burkhardt. They do a great job helping Mothers and expectant Mothers navigate through available resource networks. I then went back to Monmouth and helped flip hamburgers and ribeyes with Tri-County Beef and Warren-Henderson Farm Bureau.
The next day was a lot of fun visiting with so many people across the district and even extending over to Cambridge for a special dedication.
We started out enjoying pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage links at the Lions Club pancake breakfast at the Galesburg airport. We spent the beautiful morning watching several biplanes and others coming and going. Then we traveled to Rio to visit the annual Rio Days. They also had a touch-a-truck event which included a Knox County Sheriff’s truck, the Rio township grader, fire trucks and an ambulance. We signed the v-plow on the grader. Several exhibitors were on hand, and a few ball games were planned on the diamond later in the day.
We left there to go to Alpha so I could grab the Oxford Post #1197 colors to take to the Henry County Courthouse where we dedicated a bench at the Veterans’ Memorial site. After retiring as a Judge, COL Barnes (USMC, Ret.) was a bulldog of a veteran advocate whom I had the pleasure to work with. If not helping a local veteran with VA claims he was volunteering several days a week at Iowa City VA hospital. His wife Gayle attended the service. Many other local vet organizations attended with their respective post colors.
After a couple hours, I got cleaned up and headed to BigCatz in Knoxville to judge BBQ smoked ribs and chicken. There were several bands performing and with the beautiful evening weather it was lining up to be a great night.
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